Dissociation : Vol. 2, No. 2 (June 1989)

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Dissociation : Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 061-065 : Evidence against the iatrogenesis of multiple personality disorder
(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation, 1989-06) Ross, Colin A.
The authors present data which argue against the iatrogenesis of multiple personality disorder (MPD). Twenty-two cases reported by one Canadian psychiatrist, 23 cases reported by a second Canadian psychiatrist, 48 cases seen by 44 American psychiatrists specializing in MPD, and 44 cases seen by 40 Canadian general psychiatrists without a special interest in MPD are compared. The Canadian general psychiatrists had seen an average of 2.2 cases of MPD, while the Americans had seen an average of 160. There were no differences between these groups on the diagnostic criteria, for MPD or the number of personalities identified. Specialists in MPD are not influencing their patients to create an increased number of personalities or to endorse more diagnostic criteria. Exposure to hypnosis does not appear to influence the phenomenology of MPD.